Mystery change in satellite orbit blamed on Chinese debris strike may not be true (Updated)

by | Mar 11, 2013 | History, Science | 0 comments

The mystery change in the orbital parameters of a small Russian satellite have now have been explained: it was apparently caused by a debris strike and the debris came from a Chinese anti-satelltie missile test.  On 4 February, the Russian Institute for Precision Instrumenet Engineering reported that the 7.5kg BLITS (Ball Lens In The Space) passive laser reflector nanosatellite had had significantly changes to elements of its Sun-synchronous near-polar orbit, to its spin velocity and in is attitude and may have split into two tracked objects.  It was only after analysis by the Centre for Space Standards and Innovation that the change was traced to a debris strike which occured on 22 January 2013.   There remains doubt however about why the BLITS spacecraft only split into two parts rather than several pieces which is more usual after such a collision while other sources suggest that no collision occured.  

The original debris was alleged to be a piece of the 750kg Fengyun 1C retired weather satellite which had been deliberately destroyed in a Chinese anti-satellite missile test on 11 January 2013. The test which resulted in a large space debris cloud caused international protest.

US Defence sources subsequently noted that the original debris cloud it was allegedly struck by would have been too far away for such a collision to have occured.

 

Orbital tracks: courtesy Analytical Graphics Inc,

Comment by David Todd: Debris strikes to spacecraft are relatively common and maybe becoming more so as the amount of space debris increases.  The first confirmed incident was to the French Cerise satellite which had its gravity gradient boom cut off by a collsion with an orbiting Ariane rocket third stage on 21 July 1996.  The most famous recent incident was on 10 Feb 2009 when the communications satellite, Iridium 33, was struck by a defunct military satellite Cosmos 2252 a collision which itsefl caused more space debris.  Having noted these incidents, certain nations have a track record of blaming debris and meteor strikes for the failures on their spacecraft when in reality they are design or reliabilty related.

About Seradata

Seradata produce the renowned Seradata database. Trusted by over 100 of the world’s leading Space organisations, Seradata is a fully queryable database used for market analysis, failure/risk assessment, spectrum analysis and space situational awareness (SSA).

For more information go to https://www.seradata.com/product/

Related Articles

NASA selects SpaceX to launch second Sentinel-6 mission in 2025

NASA has returned to Space X to launch the second Sentinel-6 satellite. In a contract announced on 20 December SpaceX Read more

ISRO PSLV launches EOS-06 plus eight other satellites

A PSLV-XL launch vehicle launched from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, India at 0626 GMT on 26 November. It carried nine Read more

MPR-1 lunar rover is being built by STELLS while Canadensys Aerospace gets lunar rover contract from Canadian Space Agency

The Canadian space start-up firm STELLS has announced that it is working on a rover to go to the Moon. Read more

Having jumped ship from Astra Rocket NASA’s remaining TROPICS satellites will now fly on Electron launches

NASA has selected Rocket Lab's Electron KS rocket to provide the launch service for the agency’s Time-Resolved Observations of Precipitation Read more

CAPSTONE enters Near Rectilinear Halo Orbit planned for the lunar Gateway space station

NASA’s CAPSTONE (Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment) mission achieved its main objective when the 12U CubeSat Read more

NASA DART asteroid strike mission wows scientists with its kinetic results

The NASA DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) experimental asteroid collision mission has been declared a major scientific success. This was Read more

China launches ASO-S solar observatory to LEO

At 2343 GMT on 8 October, China launched a Long March 2D (CZ-2D) rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center Read more

India loses its Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) after eight years

India's Mars probe, the Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), has ceased to function over eight years after its launch on 5 Read more

Categories

Archives

Tags

nasaspacexecoreviewsissesaArianespacevideochina25virgin galacticfalcon 9ULARoscosmosDGAaviation weekaressoyuzIGTevaFalcon 9v1.2FT Block 5spacewalkBeidouawardsInternational Space StationspaceSatellite broadcastingBlue OriginrussiamoonStarlinkCargo Return VehicleresearchboeingmarsblogAirbus DSOneWebRocket LaborionISROimpacthyperbolamarsdelayjaxaspaceshiptwodemocratgoogle lunar prizerocketlunarhypertextobamaEutelsatlaunchVegatourismconstellationbarack obamafiguresSESnorthspaceflightnode 2fundedthales alenia spaceRaymond LygoIntelsat2009romeAtlas VExpress MD-2dassault aviationss2Elon MuskaviationLucy2008wk2Lockheed Martinukradiotestmissilesuborbitaldocking portexplorationsstlVirgin OrbitinternetChina Manned Space Engineeringsts-122Ariane 5 ECASLSmissile defensenewspapercotsgalileospace tourismflight2010Ariane 5Express AMU 1spaceportbuildspace stationaltairElectronshuttleProton Minternational astronautical congressNorthrop GrummanIntelsat 23Cosmosscaled compositesEuropean Space AgencyLauncherOnehanleybudgetrulesnew yorksoyuz 2-1aLong March 2D/2shenzhouAriane 6atvspace shuttleVietnamLong March 4CcongressMojaveboldenOrbital ATKiacGuiana Space Centercnesnew shepardLong March 2CUK Space AgencyksclawsSpace Systems/LoralprotonUS Air ForceILSInmarsatLong March 4BTalulah RileyApollodarpaeuSkylonAstriumlanderdragonbaseusaastronautpictureeventSSLfivelunar landerfalconSea LaunchWednesdayinterview50thSNCAprilVega CKuaizhou 1ASpace InsuranceTelesat7customeratlantisLong Marchlinksuccessorgriffin